Frowning Cliffs, Watkins Glen State Park
Bellamy Harbor Park, Rome, NY
The sunrise was looking too good yesterday to not stop and attempt to grab an image. On my way out of town I stopped at Bellamy Harbor Park to see what I could capture. The view looking toward the park and down the Barge Canal was not that impressive. All the colors and drama where in the sky looking more North. From the pedestrian bridge over the Mohawk I was able to get the colors I wanted, you only have to live with the power lines in the view…

Morning Power
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {1/6, 1/4, 0.4 & 0.6s bracket}, 18mm, f/11, ISO 200
Watkins Glen State Park
Downstream from the iconic Rainbow Falls is a very picturesque area of the gorge. You can setup on the Central Cascade bridge and compose your image looking up the gorge as if you are in the middle of the river. The high walls, winding river with multiple little waterfalls all add up to a very serene view. At the top of the image, peaking through the trees is the section of Rainbow Falls that is sliding down the gorge walls. I processed this image to add a little more mood than what I photographed as it relays the feeling you get standing on the bridge.
Watkins Glen State Park
I’m sticking with the pictures from my excursion to Watkins Glen State Park for today’s post. I found this rainbow upstream from the actual Rainbow Falls section of the gorge. I think the whole park is the pot of gold the rainbow is point toward…
Watkins Glen State Park
I’m going to stick with the images I captured at Watkins Glen recently. Here is a different view of Rainbow Falls. This isn’t the classic take on this section of the gorge but a more personal look at the stone bridge as you look through the falls coming down the side of the gorge. I was trying to show how wet you can get when the water is really flowing…

Let It Fall
Olympus E-M1 Mark II, M. Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8, {2, 0.8, 1/4, 1/10 & 1/40s bracket}, 17mm, f/11, ISO 200
Watkins Glen State Park
Originally I was supposed to make a trip to Watkins Glen State Park on May 31st but work got a little crazy and I ended up not taking the day off. I promised myself I would not let the next opportunity pass me by. Checking the weather earlier in the week this Friday was setting itself up to be my next opportunity.
I left early in the morning with the hope of starting my hike up the gorge trail before 7:30am. I beat my goal by five minutes. The day turned into a beautiful sunny day (not the best conditions for waterfall photography) and I knew if I didn’t get my images early the park was going to become crowded. Even though it was a weekday by 10am I was definitely not going to get many images without people in them. I even passed two bus loads of school kids on a field trip.
I grabbed this view of Rainbow Falls on my first pass. I was careful to keep the sky over the bridge to a minimum as it will create a “hot” spot in the image. Although the rains earlier in the week provided more water flow than I typically like to get good long exposure water images, the extra water definitely helped add definition to falls coming down the side of the gorge. I’m going to have to schedule a late fall trip back as I would love to grab this view after the leaves have changed.
Sunrise along the Thruway
Once again I stopped on the Thruway as I drove to work yesterday. The conditions were right for some wonderful color and drama in the sky as I tried capturing the lonely little tree in the pasture. I decided to leave my 60mm macro lens on the camera and see what it could do for the scene. It definitely created interesting lens flare…